As
President Bush addressed the United Nations last week, I could not help
thinking we have become incredibly mired in the "entangling alliances"
another President George  George Washington  warned against.
Sadly, many in Washington and the media seem to consider UN approval
of our war plans far more important than a congressional debate on the
matter.

America
has an absolute sovereign right to defend itself. We do not need permission
from the UN or anybody else to use military force. What is needed, however,
is a congressional declaration of war. Our Constitution does not permit
any President to initiate war simply because the UN gives him permission.
When we seek permission, or even mere approval, from the United Nations,
we give credibility to the terrible notion that American national security
is a matter of international consensus. America alone should decide
whether to send its sons and daughters to war.

Im
disappointed that the President has chosen to further entangle the American
people with the United Nations by rejoining UNESCO. For decades UNESCO
has promoted its anti-American "education" agenda with our
tax dollars. President Reagan was right to withdraw America from the
politicized and corrupt UNESCO, especially since American taxpayers
funded a whopping 25% of its budget. Our new promised financial commitment
to UNESCO is at least $60 million annually. Given our present economic
problems and immediate national security concerns, we surely cannot
afford to send even more taxpayer dollars to the UN  especially
to an organization that actively promotes values so contrary to those
of most Americans.

Meanwhile,
Russia and France have made it known that they might be persuaded to
support our war effort if the American government guarantees payment
for commercial debts owed them by Iraq. This amounts to nothing less
than buying allies. Incredibly, the U.S. Treasury may make good on Saddam
Husseins bad debts, with American taxpayers settling his unpaid
bills! Who can possibly believe these kinds of unholy deals represent
an acceptable foreign policy?

The root
of the problem is our insistence on accepting the concept of one-world
globalist government while pursuing unilateralist goals. We participate
in globalist institutions like the UN, sign globalist treaties, and
send our sons and daughters to fight in globalist wars that have nothing
to do with our national interest. Yet we also demand the right to act
unilaterally when it suits us, to set all policy in the global arena,
and to exclude ourselves from many of the international rules.

This
schizophrenic approach inevitably gives us the worst of both worlds.
We give up our sovereignty, but fail to win any real allies. We pay
all the bills, risk the lives of our young people, and invite UN meddling
in our domestic laws, yet still we sow the seeds of discontent and future
hostility with the world community. All because we have abandoned our
Constitution and the founders ideal of noninterventionism in favor
of globalism. What is badly needed today is a coherent foreign policy
based on American national security and self-defense, free trade, a
rejection of entangling political and military alliances, and a wholesale
removal of the U.S. from the clutches of global government.

Ron
Paul, M.D., represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas in the
United States House of Representatives.